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Monday, August 23, 2010

100 Follower Giveaway - or Should I Say QUILTAWAY!

I've been looking forward to this post for a little while now. A couple months ago, I realized that within my stash I had a group of fabrics that accidentally went together beautifully for a quilt and decided that I would use them to make one for one of you. With time running out before school starts for me, I knew it had to be on the simpler side and this is what I came up with...

I named it Over the Garden Gate. The white bars remind me of a fence and the color combinations remind me of a flower garden. I also was trying to capture the feeling of how, as we click our way through blogs and link parties, it can feel like we are peeking into someone else's craft room or living room or kitchen - just stopping by for a minute to chat before heading out to the next link down the street. There is a sense of community out there that I just wasn't expecting to find at the outset.

I all but stumbled into blogging at the end of May, basically deciding I wanted to do it because I found out there was something called the Blogger's Quilt Festival. What I could not have known was what a warm, generous and creative group of people I would find on my travels through blog-land and how the very act of blogging itself would push my creativity and give that part of my life focus, definition and goals. As I was cutting and sewing and quilting this quilt, I was thinking about the many comments I've gotten from some of you on my various projects, your insights into your own crafts and some of the beautiful things you guys have made and shared on your blogs. It is amazing to me how we just keep putting ourselves and our projects out there and how often someone has something lovely to share with us because of it. This quilt is for each of you, even if I could only make one.

On a personal level, it's nice to finally have a group of individuals that are truly interested in all of my crafts and not just humoring me because I just dragged them up to my craft room, again, to show them things that they just don't get or can't understand the amount of hours I just "lost" creating whatever it was. I thank you and my friends and family thank you. :)

I decided to give the back a little interest using some of the scraps from the top.

The quilting is difficult to see in photos since it is white on white, but it's an all-over meandering pattern. I originally planned on quilting it more tightly, but I used a higher-loft batting and I thought it looked better more widely spaced. I finished the binding by hand.

The quilt measures 62" x 76".

This quilt is washed and ready to be sent to one of you. It still needs a label and I promise it will have one before I send it out. I just haven't decided what I want it to say yet.

Thanks for reading my blog and a special thank you to all of my followers - you make blogging fun. :)

Here are the giveaway quiltaway rules...

You have 3 chances to enter. Each comment is considered an entry (no more than three per person):

1. Leave a comment about this quilt or what you might do with it if you win it or about what blogging has meant to you.

2. Become a follower. Just leave a comment, whether you're a new follower or old, just saying that you are one.

3. Blog about this quiltaway or post one of my buttons (located in my sidebar) on your blog. Let me know which you did and post the link in the comment.

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you by email! This quiltaway will run from now through Sunday, September 12th at 6:00pm. The winner will be drawn by random number generator and announced Monday, September 12th at 9:00am.

559 comments:

That is absolutely beautiful. I wish I could sew. My grandma and my mom both make quilts. My grandma has made quilts for all of the grandkids when they got married. She had a stroke in 2004 and can no longer do what she loves. That means, my sister and my cousin Brett, and myself won't get a quilt made by grandma!

This is such a finatastic and personal giveaway! I am flattered that you would even do this for one of US. I too have just started bloggin this year (Jan) and have had a wonderful and surprising experience! You are right, there is such a wonderful sense of community here in (crafty) blogland! I would use this quilt on my guestbed. The colours are perfect, and I would always have a lovely story to share! Thanks for the great opportunity!

I've been following your blog for about a month now. I'm a rabid! crafter/quilter/beader and am sure I drive the people around me nuts. This quiltaway is very pretty. Too funny that I just finished using one of the greens in your quiltaway in a baby quilt I made for my neighbor. This quiltaway is very generous!

I totally know how you feel when you said you feel like you drag people up to your craft room and they humor you! I really laughed out loud as I read it. I've had that going on for YEARS AND YEARS!!! It's hard to find people who can truly appreciate the long hours spent coordinating and piecing together projects.

Beautiful job... excellent colors... I love when scraps can come together and make and make something impressive.

This quilt is just beautiful and if I won it I would cherish it. I love to do many different types of creating as I see you do also. I have been blogging sinch March and have learned so many new things, been motivated to complete projects, but best of all I love "meeting" new people and having a glimpse into their world.

Oh My Gosh! I would love to win this quilt!! It is awesome and you couldn't have thought of a better name for it! If I won, I would put it on display in our living room (but honestly it would be wrapped around me!) Thanks for your generosity!!

It is sooo beautiful! I am so excited about your blog and the great projects you share. Do you use a quilt frame or do you lay it out on the floor or table to work on? I have a couple of unfinished ones that I've inheirted but don't know how to manage the size of them.New follower. http://garciamania.blogspot.comTracey

I'd love to spread this lovely quilt over my daughter's bed. I remember getting lost in and reflecting on all the different designs in my quilt as a child, and how cool it felt on my skin, when I'd firt pull it over me. I'd love my child to know that kind of joy!quitecontrary1977@hotmail.com

I would so love this quilt. I am re-doing our bedroom and it's just the right colours for it. I have been trying to figure out the quilt that I want, but haven't had the time or the energy to do it as of yet. Thank you for doing this for your followers!

What a generous giveaway. I tried quilting years ago, but then I went back to work and never had the time. Now that I'm retired, maybe I can try again. Your quilt could be my inspiration. Thank you for the chance to win.

What a gorgeous quilt! - and so generous of you to give away such a labour of love! I love the colour combination. I would use it on my lazyboy for the lovely coolish upcoming fall evenings when I still keep the windows open, and get lost in a great book. Thanks for the chance to win!

I want to win this quilt for ME! I want to have it all to myself & just look at it & admire how pretty it is. We quilters don't often make quilts for ourselves, so it would be nice to have one just for me!

I'm officially a follower! I love this quilt - it is the perfect reflection of the quiet summer moments that I had as a child. If I were to win it, I would squeal with delight and snuggle underneath it in the upcoming cool fall and winter nights. It's simply beautiful - the colors, the details, the sense of dreaminess...LOVE!

I am following! Would love if you would add this beautiful quilt and giveaway at our quilting site. We have a linky fabric tuesday party going on...quiltstory.blogspot.com we would love to see you there...

You said it SEW well..blogging has opened up a whole new world for me...all these quilting friends!! Lots to share and lots to see and be inspired!! Thanks for this wonderful, generous Give Away!!Paulette

That is so sweet and gorgeous! I have been wanting to quilt for awhile but my machine has been pretty messed up and not cooperating. Daughter left for college out of state this past weekend, this would look beautiful in her bland colored dorm room. Being a crafter herself she appreciates the work it takes when making something.

The most amazingly meaningful and generous of self, time, and materials giveaway! Wow, thanks for the fun opportunity. It is GORGEOUS! I would hang it in my living room on the wall...the color scheme matches perfectly! We have had trouble hanging art because our walls are stuccoed really heavily....but a quilt would work like a dream!rachel DOT m DOT shay AT hotmail DOT com

Okay, I'll bite! I've added your bug on a pink flower button to my blog, and I'm a faithful follower now. Your quilt is beautiful, and you so eloquently stated what I've discovered about blogging on my own without even realizing it.

I belong to a guild, but I've found more comaraderie online among blogging quilters. I so enjoy reading your blogs and seeing what you're working on, and I love the encouragement I get from others when I post my own work.

This quilt is so lovely! I wish I had the time and skill needed to make something like this myself. If I won this I would really want to keep it for myself, but would probably give it to my grandmother, who just moved into a seniors residence. We're trying to fill the place with lovely things and make her comfortable.

I really love this quilt and I want it so badly!!!!I would wrap myself in it to hold my wee man every morning,I would watch tv with my husband wrapped in it and them I would cover up at night with it because my blanket is a little on the thin side.I would love to have a handmade quilt,and this one is just my style too!! Please enter me and I will cross my fingers and toes!Thank youjacksoncrisman@yahoo.com

http://meeyeehere.blogspot.com/2010/08/quiltaway-giveaway.htmlI blogged about it even though a little devil told me not too because lots of people will enter and my chances go down.The angel on the other side made me. Have a nice week. Baa!!LOL!!!

Wow what an amazing gift you have and an amazing gift that you are giving. It really would make a beautiful quilt to wrap up in with a good book in the fall in my backyard. I could use to do more reading.

Thank you for the opportunity to win! This is a beautiful quilt.. I wish that I had just a tiny bit of talent for quilts. I would love to put this on my wall in the living room. The colors match the Guacamole green walls, so perfectly! And if my measurements are off.. then I will hang it over the back of my couch.

I have started blogging, I really enjoy it so far.. it's still in the early stages.. it will get there.

That is a beautiful quilt! You are so generous to give it away, wow! I so agree that only others who sew can understand the time it takes to create something. People think something can be "whipped up", and I think for the most part, can't appreciate all the effort. Thanks for such a great giveaway!

It's so beautiful! I have decided to change my bedroom colors to something much lighter and brighter than I currently have. I am a quilter myself, but having 4 kids and another due in Dec., my quilting time is almost nonexistant! So I would gladly take one made by someone else!

What an incredibly generous thing to do. I can't believe you're giving that quilt away! Blogging has given me a support system for my need to create that I didn't have before. I've met some amazingly gifted and inspired folks, and it has given me motivation to be better at what I try to do.

What a generous giveaway. You put some of us to shame with your generosity and your skills. I would love to have this quilt to put on my mother's bed. She is in a nursing home and she wants colorful and personal things around her. All the quilts she had are left in Calif. so this would be a great heart warmer for her. Thanks for the opportunity.

What a sweet, thoughtful and GORGEOUS gveaway! That was such a great post and I can agree with you on a lot of what you said and blogging! If I had this beautiful quilt I would snuggle up in it while I was blog hopping!! :)

This really is a beautiful quilt. I'm planning on making a stacked coins quilt for my new niece. If I one this quilt, it would go up for silent auction to help a little boy with cerebral palsy. Thanks for the chance!

I love this quilt. It's gorgeous. The fabrics are beautiful together. I would place it across the end of my bed.

I just started blogging a few weeks ago, and I love it. I love getting comments and slowly picking up followers here and there. I completely agree that it's nice to get compliments from people who are genuinely interested in what I am doing and not just humoring me.

What a very nice thing for you to do.. give this beautiful quilt away! I love it and especially love the way you used the fabric. The white sets it off just perfect... lovely!I've been a follower and so want this quilt!Sandy

What a generous thing to give away! You did a beautiful job on it and I love the name you came up with for it... very appropriate. Blogging has become something I enjoy very much, but right now it's not something I can do as often as I like. I'm trying to make time in my day for it. =) Whoever wins your quilt will enjoy it a lot! =)

Congrats on the # of followers...BTW you will most likely hit 200 in a moment with such a fab giveaway!!Wow! I can't believe you are giving away a hand-made quilt! You are one generous lady!!I just found you through another blog and I am so glad I did!

Oh honey! What a sweet quilt! And how delightful - you're giving it away! I know somebody is going to be thrilled next month! I would love to use it on my couch - it will look so nice there when my first grandchild arrives (late Sept/early Oct)! You know how many photo ops are around when that happens! Thank you for your generosity after all the work you've put into this quilt - it will be appreciated no matter who wins it! Leslie Anne

I'm also a follower - I love to see what crafts other people are doing. My grandmother used to meet at church on Wednesday mornings with other women from the church, just to craft. They would all bring whatever they were working on and get busy on it while chatting with each other. If one was interested in what another was doing, she'd just go over and talk with her about it. She did decoupage, chair caning, wallpaper beads, hairpin lace, safety-pin & beads necklaces, pine cone wreaths, crocheted rugs, sewing all sorts of things, and all manner of Christmas decorations. A legacy of love. Does it get any better than that?

Your quilt is just perfect! If I were to win, I would move it around from room to room -depending on my mood! :) Blog is a HUGE creative outlet for me, even if I do not get post often enough..... I still plan a lot in my head! Thanks for the quilt-a-way!

I love quilts, and I think you did a beautiful job on this one! I am not a quilter, but I can appreciate them all the same.Blogging has been great for me. It's been a little over a year, and I love it.I don't know if I blog so I can create, or if I create so I can blog. :)please enter me in this fabulous giveaway.gail

Oh I love this! I would so enjoy this on our bed. I have such a connection with quilts that goes back to when I would always spend Saturday and Sunday nights with my mammaw and pappaw as a child. Thanks for allowing me to remember them today!

OMGosh...I'm dying to win this quilt...I love the colors the contrast...every little detail....this is probably the most wanted win out of all the blog give-aways I have entered. Quilts are my favorite and this is to die for!